48. Something To Prove: Hiroshi VS. Ankoku
Everyone's eyes kept to the battle below, they could not believe how fierce the Taijutsu battle was taking place between the two Kunoichi, Hakuhen Yuki and Botsuraku Aki. Punch after punch, kick after kick between both Kunoichi. Finally, after six straight minutes of pure Taijutsu, Yuki took one hit to many and fell to the floor unconscious. Shikamaru walked up to the knocked out Kunoichi and inspected her for a second before speaking.
"This match is over, Botsuraku Aki moves on to the final round."
Aki walked back up to the balcony second floor to where her team was standing while Medic-nin came in and placed Yuki on a stretcher and exited the building. Shikamaru took his place in the middle of the arena.
"Alright, let's see the names for the next match," he said and the electronic scoreboard started searching through names once again quickly stopping at two.
'Good luck, Hiroshi,' Naruto mentally said while looking at his student who was jumping up and down in the air, thanking Kami his turn had finally come.
"Alright, the next match will be Kamizuki Ankoku VS. Kurosaki Hiroshi," Shikamaru said turning his head back to the participants upstairs.
Hiroshi ran down stairs to the arena floor while Ankoku took his time. Hiroshi was growing impatient, he wanted everyone to watching to see his skills and it was like Ankoku couldn't care less about the battle.
"Hey!" yelled Hiroshi, "Would you hurry up?"
Ankoku stopped in his tracks in the middle of the stairs and looked down at Hiroshi, "Why? After I get down there, the match will start and I'd already kicked your ass, so I'm in no hurry."
Hiroshi growled, "What a lame excuse, it seems to me you're scared of losing."
Ankoku began to laugh, "Scared? I'm not scared of a loser like you. You're just talking tough because in reality, you're scared."
Hiroshi growled again but couldn't think of anything back to say. Ankoku waited for a response before speaking up again.
"Judging by your silence, I was right," the boy of team 12 said.
'Ankoku needs to forget his rivalry with Hiroshi and focus on the battle at hand, he'll never become Chunin if he is like this,' Sakura mentally noted.
Naruto sighed, 'Hiroshi, quit making a fool of yourself and show him what you've got.'
Ankoku finally made it to the arena and approached Hiroshi, stopping a few feet away from him. Shikmaru assessed the two and spoke, "Whenever you're ready, you may begin,"
Shikamaru stepped back and the two just stayed there for a while before Ankoku quickly took out a kunai and charged at Hiroshi. Hiroshi just stood there and Ankoku stabbed Hiroshi in the throat, at least that's what everyone thought at first gasping, but relief hit the arena when Hiroshi turned into a log.
'What? When did he do that Jutsu? I didn't see him make and hand seals,' Ankoku thought.
Suddenly Ankoku felt a tap on his shoulder, he turned around only to meet with a foot to his face. Hiroshi kicked him square in the face. Ankoku flew through the air a few feet before landing onto the ground hard and rolling a few more feet, crashing into the wall.
Ankoku got up a few minutes after hitting the wall, pain was evident throughout most of his body after he hit the wall. What he failed to notice was another Hiroshi was running towards him on his left side throwing a punch into Ankoku's face sending him into the ground again. He rose again only to find a bunch more Hiroshi's running at him from all directions.
'Kage Bunshins? (Shadow Replications) When did he learn that technique? It doesn't matter, I need to rid these clones and find the real son of a bitch.'
Ankoku quickly went through seals, "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)" Ankoku took a deep breath and then exhaled where a great ball of flames came out and scorched all the clones, dispersing them all immediately. After the smoke cleared, no body was standing in the fighting arena except for Ankoku himself.
"Where the hell did he go?" asked Ankoku as he looked around everywhere and couldn't find him. It stunned him since there was no where in the arena for Hiroshi to hide in or behind. Ankoku walked toward the middle and stopped again, "Where are you?" he yelled.
"Where?" said a voice that just echoed around, "I'm right under you, Earth Release: Ground Decapitation Technique."
Two hands came out of the floor and grabbed Ankoku by the ankles and dragged him into the ground while Hiroshi got out and stood over Ankoku, flipping a kunai in his hands.
"You can give up now, or I can kill you. Decide," replied Hiroshi while Ankoku looked at him in anger.
"I'd never give up to a loser like, so I'd rather you kill me," Ankoku said, finishing the last part with a smirk that Hiroshi didn't take note of.
Naruto sighed as he saw Hiroshi raise his kunai, 'You're falling for a trap kid, don't do it.'
Hiroshi smirked as he slammed the kunai into Ankoku's skull, or what would have been had Ankoku turned into a log.
"Thought you had me, didn't ya? Well not today, I told you I would win.," Ankoku taunted and started performing hand seals which Sakura quickly realized.
'Oh no, he's going to use that jutsu,' Sakura noted mentally, and started to worry that Ankoku was going too far with this fight.
Shikamaru on the other hand wasn't really paying attention like he should have been and was too late to step in and stop the battle.
"Katon: Karyuu Endan! (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Blast)"
Ankoku inhaled deeply, nearly choking on too much oxygen and exhaled with a powerful fire blast in the shape of a dragon.
"What the fuck?" yelled Hiroshi as his eyes widened. He quickly went through seals, "Doton: Tsuchikabe no…" but was couldn't get the jutsu out before the massive dragon flame hit Hiroshi dead on.
"Hiroshi!" yelled Naruto as he tried so desperately not to jump down in the arena. He knew if he did, the match would be over and Hiroshi would of lost, but then again the safety of his students is more important than anything else, but he couldn't let himself destroy Hiroshi's pride, he believed in Hiroshi's abilities, he believed in all his students so he decided not to interfere hoping it was the right call.
Ankoku smirked, "Shikamaru-sama, call the match, it's over."
'This is all so troublesome,' sighed Shikamaru mentally and walked over toward the smoke to inspect to see if Hiroshi was down and out, but to his amazement he did not see Hiroshi anywhere. Shikamaru stepped back out of the smoke and said the words that shocked Ankoku more than anything, "The match is not over."
"What? That can't be, the bastard should be dead, I saw him get hit head on by that jutsu!" yelled a now upset Ankoku, "Who the hell's side are you own now anyway?"
The smoke finally cleared and Ankoku turned from his yelling at Shikamaru to where Hiroshi was supposed be lying down to see Hiroshi not there at all. A cancellation of a jutsu could be heard but Ankoku paid no attention right away until Hiroshi spoke up.
"Thought you had me there, didn't ya you idiot?" taunted Hiroshi. Ankoku turned around to see Hiroshi perfectly find standing near the wall. "You didn't even notice there was one more pillar holding up the balcony second floor then there was supposed to be."
"But how?" asked Ankoku who was really too surprised to really speak.
"When you were distracted by my Kage Bunshins, I used Henge (Transformation) to hide while I waited to the right moment," replied Hiroshi. "I told you, you would not beat me here."
Hiroshi began flashing through hand seals before coming to the sign of the boar, "Doton: Tushihashira no Zetsumei no Jutsu! (Earth Release: Earth Pillars of Death Technique)"
The arena began to shake as sharp pillars made of earth rose from the ground quickly making a line toward Ankoku. He began dodging and jumping backwards to avoid getting impaled by one of the sharp pillars. While Ankoku was destracted, with dodging pillars, Hiroshi quickly ran toward the back of the arena where Ankoku was jumping backwards toward.
Ankoku was quickly tiring out as he got closer and closer to getting hit by the pillars that continuously rose from the earth, non-stop.
Hiroshi got to his destination and went through hand seals once more, "Doton: Tsuchikabe no Jutsu! (Earth Release: Earth Wall Technique)"
A wall of solid earth rose from the ground, and it rose quickly. It stood at least nearly twenty feet high, with room for Hiroshi to quickly climb up the back and stand on the very top and awaited for the right moment to do the next step into his attack.
Ankoku continued to dodge pillar after pillar that rose from the ground. One nearly went through his foot had he not dodged right away. His back slammed into a hard wall and he looked up to find a giant wall of earth blocking his way.
"Shit!" he yelled and quickly ran up to the middle thinking he was safe from the pillars. He was breathing heavily and trying to catch his breath when he noticed smaller pillars began coming out of the wall, "God, do they ever end!" he yelled and began running up the wall, failing to notice Hiroshi was on the top smirking at him.
This was it, this was his chance to show he was strong, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu! (Shadow Replication Technique)"
Three clones appeared beside him and all three of the Hiroshi's began to flash through hand seals, "Doton: Iwa Genkotsu! (Earth Release: Rock Fists!)," they all yelled slamming their fists inside the rock. When they got their hands out of the earth, they were all covered in a thick layer of earth, glued on by their chakra. Two of the clones started running down the right side of the wall, while the third started running down the left side of the wall. Ankoku was running towards the three shadow replications, passing one but the second one caught Ankoku by surprised and kicked Ankoku off the wall and slammed his rock fist hard into Ankoku's stomach, causing him to quickly wall towards the ground. He thought he was done for when the second clone he passed moments ago caught him and then punched him hard in the face with his rock fist. Ankoku's jaw cracked a bit and the force of the blow caused him to fly towards the left. That one clone was waiting and slammed his rock fist hard into Ankoku's back, finally he started to yell in pain after being hit three times by the painfully hard fists of the clones. The force of the blow to his back caused him to fly upwards. The real Hiroshi jumped up, quickly canceling the first two jutsu's which all turned into a pile of soft dirt,
"I don't want to kill you, so when you hit the ground, the dirt will cushion your fall a bit," Hiroshi said before slamming his on rock fist in Ankoku's stomach you coughed up a lot of blood.
Ankoku went tumbling down to the ground and slammed into the pile of dirt hard. Though the fall was cushioned by the soft dirt, it still left a small crater in the floor. Ankoku had gone completely unconscious.
Shikamaru walked to Ankoku to make sure he wasn't dead. Ankoku was breathing, but he looked like shit now. Blood stains around his mouth and on his close, a massive bruise on his face as well.
"This battle is over, winner is Kurosaki Hiroshi."
Hiroshi began cheering for himself while the participants stared in disbelief of the power Hiroshi had just shown.
Hiroshi quickly ran up the stairs to where his team was at and stood right in front of Naruto, "So, what did ya think, Naruto-sensei?"
Naruto gave his trademark grin, "You did great Hiroshi, but you could have been a little less brutal in your attack."
Hiroshi began to rub the back of his head and chuckled nervously, "I guess I did overdo it a bit, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Naruto replied with a smile.
"I think you did great, Hiroshi-kun," Himawari added.
"Good job," was all he got out of Shiro.
"Thanks guys, and you'll do well yourself, Himawari-chan," said Hiroshi with a smile.
"Alright, we're going to get this dirt clean quickly before we go onto the next mach," replied Shikamaru towards the participants, 'Man this getting more and more troublesome by the minute, why can't this hurry up and end already. I want to sit back and watch the clouds already.'
Three figures walked along with two masked men through a village that was covered in mist.
"Never thought you'd come back, Shinsui-sama," said one of the mist ANBU.
"I never thought I'd come back myself, but I had to see the Mizukage about something," replied Shinsui.
Hayase noticed the troubled look on Kami's face, "What's wrong with you, Kami-san?"
"Don't say my name you fucking idiot," Kami scolded Hayase while whispering.
"Err, sorry," replied Hayase, "Totosai-san, what's wrong?" he tried again.
The ANBU was starting to take interest in the third guy with them as he had not seen him before,
Kami whispered to Hayase, "Unlike your brother, I'm a missing-nin, if they find out who I am, their ANBU might seize me, especially since I'm from Konoha!"
"Oh, yeah, I forgot."
The three Tatsumaki members along with their ANBU escort reached the Mizukage's tower. The two ANBU ushered the Tatsumaki members inside and climbed a lot of stairs before standing by two large doors.
"You three stay here, I'll go inform Mizukage-sama his guests have arrived," said one of the ANBU and went inside.
The other ANBU decided to take this opportunity to question the third cloaked person that was traveling along with Shinsui.
"Who are you?" the ANBU member asked Kami.
"Who me?" he asked, playing stupid.
"Yes you, I've never seen you before," the ANBU member replied.
"My name is Totosai, I'm a client of Shinsui-sama's."
The ANBU didn't quite believe him, but let it go for the time being as the other ANBU member came out of the office.
"Okay, Mizukage-sama will see you now," replied the ANBU member, allowing the three Tatsumaki members inside the Mizukage's office.
It took a good ten minutes to get the arena cleaned of the dirt Hiroshi had created by manipulating the earth underneath the tile flooring, finally Shikamaru stepped back onto the arena.
"Alright, time to announce the next match," he said as the scoreboard began shuffling through names again. Finally it stopped once again.
"Alright, next match will be Kubo Himawari VS. Niwa," Shikamaru said.
The Konoha Kunoich along with the Kusa Kunoichi quickly made their way to the arena where the two faced each other.
"I'm going to make you pay for what you and your team did to use in the Forest of Death you little bitch," quietly said the Kusa Kunoichi, only to where Himawari heard.
"Bring it Kusa slut," replied Himawari.
Shikamaru finally walked to the two Kunoichi, "Whenever you are ready, you may begin the match."
Just as Shikamaru finished, the two Kunoichi charged at each other. Naruto, who was looking, knew this fight was going to be intense.
Sorry for the long update, I've been busy with work and other personal stuff, but I've returned with the latest chapter. Until next time, see ya.
